Lake Griffin Drawdown Produces No Drawbacks

August 23, 1985|By Don Wilson of The Sentinel Staff

The bass population of Leesburg's Lake Griffin has burgeoned in the wake of an artificial drawdown in the lake, spurring fisheries biologists to predict an excellent fishing future for the 9,100-acre lake.

The number of young bass in the lake has quadrupled since the 1984 drawdown, said a spokesman for the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission.

In addition, because of increased food sources, the bass are growing at a much faster rate.

That means anglers could begin seeing the benefits of the drawdown, in terms of increased catches, as early as spring.

The majority of the new crop of bass should reach catchable size in a year. By that time, there should be dramatic increases in catch rates on the lake.

''This year we had the first spawn as a result of the improved habitat, and we are finding four times the number of young-of-the-year bass that we had before the drawdown,'' said Bill Johnson, a fisheries biologist at the game commission's Eustis laboratory. ''In addition we've had some really good growth rates.''

Young-of-the-year bass are fish born during the preceding spring spawning season, and biologists traditionally sample their numbers in early summer. They use electric shocking equipment to stun the fish so they can be counted. In 1983, before the drawdown, Johnson said 15 minutes of shocking produced 11.5 young-of-the-year fish. This year, he said, the same period produced 45.7 fish.

Johnson attributed the increases to improvements in habitat -- the underwater weeds that shelter the bass and provide food until they are old enough to protect themselves.

By lowering lake water levels, the biologists exposed vast areas of mucky lake bottom that dried out and allowed new plant growth to begin.

Although unusually heavy rains limited the drawdown to two months rather than three and saw the scientists drop the water level 6 feet rather than the 7 feet they sought, they still achieved most of their hoped-for results.